Fabrication of a Microfluidic Device to Study the Interactions between Human Chordoma UCH-1 and Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells

Abstract

According to the National Institute of Health, 80 percent of adults suffer low back pain at some point in their lifetime. The loss of intervertebral disc elements, such as the nucleus pulposus, leads to abnormal spine mechanics, inflammatory signaling and compression of neural structures that lead to pain. Recently, undifferentiated stem cells have been used to rescue specialized cells via transfer of mitochondria and growth factors. However, it is not known if this method could be used to aid in the regeneration of human nucleus pulposus. In this work, we used a microfluidic device to co-culture human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) next to human chordoma UCH-1 cells. Human chordoma derived UCH-1 cells have the same genetical and morphological properties as nucleus pulposus cells and serve as a model for in vitro studies. We made a microfluidic device that consisted of two wells separated by a channel, each well allows for culture of a specific cell type. When the channel is opened, it mixes the media from each cell line. The microfluidic device was fabricated using SLA resin 3D printing and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). On average we saw about a 50% increase in cell number when UCH-1 cells where cultured with ADSC cells than just UCH-1 cells alone. These results indicate that even at a distance stem cells (ADSC) are able to influence the growth of UCH-1 cells. We observed ADSCs migrate towards the chamber with UCH-1 cells, suggesting that there is a chemotactic signal attracting ADSCs to the chordoma chamber. In the future, we want to check for the growth factors that affect cell proliferation and the maximum distance between cell groups at which effects can be seen.